Matt Taibbi: Meet Mr. Republican: Jack Abramoff (Rolling Stone article)

[Wetzelbill]

Meet Mr. Republican: Jack Abramoff
By Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone

24 March Issue

The secret history of the most corrupt man in Washington.
So this is it, finally. By the time this magazine hits the newsstands, Jack Abramoff - right-wing megalobbyist and great feckless shitwad of our new American century - will be but a tick of the geological clock away from The End. There will be no rack, no stoning, no scorpion-filled sand pit, no bucket of fire ants. Just a sanitary plea agreement and a single blow of the gavel, and "Casino Jack" Abramoff will disappear for a few years of weightlifting and Talmudic study.

En route to his day of reckoning, Abramoff really did travel each and every right-wing highway, from Jo-burg in the old days to the Bush White House. But he's being sentenced for only the last few miles of that trip. It's almost an insult to a criminal of Abramoff's caliber that the charge he'll go to jail for is a low-rent wire-fraud scheme committed in a pickpocket capital like Miami Beach. In that one, Jack and his cronies claimed to have $23 million in assets when he didn't have a dime, and he persuaded financial backers to purchase a $147.5 million cruise-ship casino empire. A nice score for a Gotti child, maybe, but a bit gauche for the wizard of the Republican fast lane.

The other charges are a little more respectable. He took tens of millions from Indian tribes that sought relief from Washington on gaming-industry questions, illegally pocketed millions in lobbying fees and evaded taxes on his ill-gotten gains. He also used their money to provide, in exchange for favors, a "stream of things of value" to elected officials, including golf junkets to Scotland, free meals and other swag.

It's that last bit that made Abramoff a national celebrity, the poster boy for the way the Bush administration does business and the most feared name around in a Washington political society that is still waiting with bated lizard breath for the other shoe to drop. To most Americans, Jack Abramoff is the bloodsucking bogeyman with a wad of bills in his teeth who came through the window in the middle of the night and stole their voice in government. But he was much more than that. Abramoff was as much of a symbol of his generation's Republican Party as Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater was of his.

He was an amazingly ubiquitous figure, a sort of Zelig of the political right - you could find him somewhere, in the foreground or the background, in almost every Republican political scandal of the past twenty-five years. He carried water for the racist government of Pretoria during the apartheid days and whispered in the ear of those Republican congressmen who infamously voted against anti-apartheid resolutions. He organized rallies in support of the Grenada invasion, showed up in Ollie North's offices during Iran-Contra, palled around with Mobutu Sese Seko, Jonas Savimbi and the Afghan mujahedin.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041406E.shtml

[WhiteTara]

1. great article

sure says alot about who they are. I'll bet his wife doesn't have orgasms either. What a family he must have grown up in. His mother conspiring with her child to cheat in a "GRADE SCHOOL" class election! OMG. I think it is interesting that he is such a conspicuous jew and he gave out hot dogs! :rofl:

I loved the scorn the author heaped on Jack. Added to the announcement by Oklahoma Coburn's comment of 7 congressmen being indicted, it looks better than just Ney and Delay.

I'm betting on Blunt as being one
Conrad Burns is another
Doolittle
Pombo

I was a little disappointed that there was no mention of KKKarl Rove in the piece as he is definitely one of the boys. But great. Loved it. Thanks for posting.

[Wetzelbill]

2. glad you liked it

I thought it was well done. The part about Jack cheating in a grade school election was hilarious! :) What a sicko!

[Judi Lynn]

3. If I had not started reading this article,I would have never learned this:

On his first trip to Johannesburg in 1983, Abramoff met with leaders from the archconservative, pro-apartheid National Students Federation, which itself is alleged to have been created by South Africa's notorious Bureau of Security Services. Together with NSF member Russel Crystal - today a prominent South African politician in the Democratic Alliance, an anti-African National Congress party - Abramoff subsequently, in 1986, chaired the head of a conservative think tank called the International Freedom Foundation.

The creation of the IFF officially marked the beginning of the silly phase of Abramoff's career. According to testimony before Democratic South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995, the IFF was not a conservative think tank but actually a front for the South African army. Testimony in sealed TRC hearings reportedly reveal that the IFF was known by the nickname "Pacman" in the South African army and that its activities were part of a larger plan called "Operation Babushka," designed to use propaganda to discredit the ANC and Nelson Mandela at home and abroad. Among other things, Abramoff managed during this time to funnel funds and support from the IFF to a variety of stalwart congressmen and senators, including Rep. Dan Burton and Sen. Jesse Helms, all of whom consistently opposed congressional resolutions against apartheid. These members of Congress would deny knowing that the IFF's money came from the South African government, because that, of course, would have been illegal; Abramoff himself denied it too, although he has been largely quiet on the subject since the TRC testimony in 1995.
(snip)

Isn't it peculiar other sources have forgotten to give much background on Mr. Abramoff? Must have been an oversight!

I'm not nearly through, and I've already made a print-out to share. Jeez, I'm glad you posted this article. Thank you.

[Wetzelbill]

4. you're welcome

it's some good stuff for sure. :)

[WhiteTara]

5. if you like that story, here's another tale

in the same book.
http://www.insider-magazine.com/ChristianMafia.htm
The United States has experienced religious and cult hucksters throughout its history, from Cotton Mather and his Salem witch burners to Billy Sunday, Father Charles Coughlin, Charles Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh, Marshall Applewhite, and others. But none have ever achieved the kind of power now possessed by a powerful and secretive group of conservative politicians and wealthy businessmen in the United States and abroad who are known among their adherents and friends as The Fellowship or The Family. The Fellowship and its predecessor organizations have used Jesus in the same way that McDonald’s uses golden arches and Coca Cola uses its stylized script lettering. Jesus is a logo and a slogan for the Fellowship. Jesus is used to justify the Fellowship’s access to the highest levels of government and business in the same way Santa Claus entices children into department stores and malls during the Christmas shopping season.

and the tale twists the strands of evil and hypocrisy into our modern day history.

[RedEarth]

6. Interesting article..... thanks

[Judi Lynn]

7. I just learned something I didn't know. Remembering I overlooked

recommending this article, I just tried to vote for it early Monday morning, and got the message you can only vote for articles in the 24 hours after they are posted.

As a note to others who didn't know this either, if you have been informed, or moved by a well-done post here, vote for it before the day has passed if you want to highlight it.

If you miss the vote, and still want to recommend it, post a Panda Cub photo! :woohoo:

[johan helge]

8. I especially loved this one

Excellent article, I especially loved this one:

"Somewhere along the line, in the years since the Cold War, Americans as a whole became such craven, bum-licking, self-absorbed fat cats that they were willing to listen to these fifth-rate prophets who pretended that the idea that rules could be broken was some kind of earth-shattering revelation -- as though they had fucking invented fraud and cheating."

I wonder - will the Democrats win the next elections, or is there no limit as to what these people can get away with? (Watergate gave the Democrats only one Presidential victory, before these people won the next three elections.)